It is well known to provide electrical connectors mountable to a printed circuit board, with contact terminals therein electrically coupled to respective electrical circuit traces on the board. The terminals may have solder tails projecting from the connector and inserted into holes in the board, or the terminals may have leg portions generally parallel to the board for surface mounting in electrical engagement with circuit traces on the board. In either instance, the terminals are coupled to the circuit traces on the board most commonly by solder connections, either between the solder tails and plated through-holes in the board or between the surface mounted leg portions and the circuit traces on the board surface.
One of the problems with electrical connectors mounted to printed circuit boards is that the electrical connections between the contact terminals and the board circuits often are subjected to stresses which can weaken or destroy the electrical connections. This is particularly true with a common type of electrical connector mountable to printed circuit boards, wherein the connector is elongated in configuration to provide one or more rows of contact terminals.
Surface-mounted electrical connectors most often have some form of hold-down means for securing the connector to a surface of the printed circuit board. The hold-down means may be provided for permanent securement of the connector or for temporarily maintaining the connector on the board. Such hold-down means may be provided by mounting pegs which are integral with the connector housing or by separate hold-down devices or clips. A typical arrangement is to provide the mounting pegs or clips with a bifurcated configuration, along with outwardly projecting hooks or barbs for engaging the opposite surface of the printed circuit board, whereby the pegs or clips can be yieldingly inserted through holes in the board and snappingly engage the opposite side of the board to hold the connector onto the one surface of the board.
Other hold-down means have been provided in the form of screws, bolts or other clamping devices. However, with the ever-increasing miniaturization of electronic circuitry, along with the consequent reduction in sizes of the connectors and terminals, such clamping devices often are impractical and neither cost nor space effective. Consequently, various types of clips or brackets have been used which, themselves, may be secured to the surface of the printed circuit board by a substantial soldered area. Most such clips or brackets are mounted onto the outside of an electrical connector and often provide support between the connector and the printed circuit board in a direction transversely of the elongated connector. However, in compact electronic environments, exterior brackets or mounting clips are difficult to assemble to the connector and do not provide sufficient support between the connector and the printed circuit board in the longitudinal direction of the connector. This invention is directed to solving the problems set forth above by providing a retention system wherein one or more retention members are easily mounted on the connector from the outside thereof and which provide support between the connector and the printed circuit board particularly longitudinally of the elongated connector.